A patient reportedly fired a police officer’s gun inside Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital’s emergency room

Few details were available a day after a patient in police custody reportedly fired shots inside the emergency room of Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital Saturday afternoon during a frightening incident that caused no injuries.

Local police brought the patient to the Camden County hospital around noon Saturday for a medical evaluation, a Jefferson spokesperson told The Inquirer Sunday. According to a 6abc report, the patient then grabbed a Hi-Nella police officer’s gun and fired shots into the emergency room. No one was reported injured and the patient was subdued, Jefferson spokesperson Damien Woods said.

No information was available on how many people were in the ER at the time. Woods would not confirm whether a shooting occurred, referring to the situation only as an “incident” and an “event” in a statement issued Sunday.

“An incident occurred between a law enforcement officer and this in-custody patient. No patients or staff were harmed during this event and patient care remained uninterrupted,” Woods said. “The patient was seen by medical staff and was discharged back to police custody.”

Police for Hi-Nella, a small borough in Camden County, could not be reached for comment. The case is under investigation by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, which did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

Why the patient was originally in police custody was not known.

The shooting follows other violent situations at area hospitals that have led the region’s health-care workers to advocate for safer workplace conditions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, health-care workers are five times more likely to experience workplace violence than workers in other industries.

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In 2021, a fatal shooting of a certified nursing assistant by another at Jefferson University Hospital in Center City left the community questioning the safety protocols of the hospital, as some employees weren’t notified of the shooting until more than a half hour after police first reported the shooting.

From 2022 to 2023, more than 80 cases of assault involving hospital staff were recorded in Philadelphia. However, the reported cases are likely a fraction of the violence that occurs on the job.